TxDOT decides 'FORNO 1' license plate isn't dirty

Armando Florido, owner of Fornos of Italy restaurant, has a "FORNOS" plate on his Hummer. A similar plate was initially rejected.

Armando Florido, owner of Fornos of Italy restaurant, has a "FORNOS" plate on his Hummer. A similar plate was initially rejected.

Photo: BRETT COOMER, CHRONICLE

Photo: BRETT COOMER, CHRONICLE

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Armando Florido, owner of Fornos of Italy restaurant, has a "FORNOS" plate on his Hummer. A similar plate was initially rejected.

Armando Florido, owner of Fornos of Italy restaurant, has a "FORNOS" plate on his Hummer. A similar plate was initially rejected.

Photo: BRETT COOMER, CHRONICLE

TxDOT decides 'FORNO 1' license plate isn't dirty

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The Texas Department of Transportation gets so many requests for vanity plates spelling out cuss words and sex acts that its employees were convinced that plates reading "FORNO 1" just had to mean something dirty.

TxDOT Director Amadeo Saenz and the head of the vehicle titles and registration division signed off on the decision last month not to issue Houston resident Armando Florido the plates.

On Monday, the vehicle titles and registration division reversed course, recommending that Saenz approve the plates — which Florido sought because he owns Fornos of Italy restaurants.

"He should have his plates by the end of next week," said Kim Sue Lia Perkes, spokeswoman for the VRT division. "The director usually approves our recommendations as a matter of course."

A clerk at the Harris County tax assessor-collector's office refused to issue the plates last week, for which Florido already had paid, saying that TxDOT had concluded they were obscene.

"It was, in fact, rejected because we were concerned Texans might see it as referring to a sexual act," Perkes said in an e-mail Monday.

Of the 21 million vehicles issued Texas plates, 93,000 have vanity plates.

Many requests for vanity plates are denied because they would spell a curse word or sex act or advertise a driver's alleged sexual prowess or inclinations, Perkes said.

Under state law, "the director may refuse to issue a specialty license plate with a design or alphanumeric pattern that the director considers potentially objectionable to one or more members of the public."